Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems generate an effectively long antenna by platform motion and signal processing rather than the actual use of a long physical antenna. SAR systems may be used for airborne ground mapping. In spotlight mode, the antenna is effectively pointed or directed toward a region being imaged. Spotlight SAR systems are used in automatic target recognition (ATR) systems to identify and possibly engage targets that may not be emitting radio-frequency (RF) energy.
It is desirable for ATR systems to generate a SAR map of the region of interest in real-time; however this requires significant processing resources that either take up too much space and/or consume too much power for certain missile applications or are cost-prohibitive. For example, microprocessors that meet volume requirements and power constraints are generally too slow for real-time applications, while ASIC-implemented parallel hardware processing architectures can be expensive.
Thus, there are general needs for SAR systems and methods that can process SAR data in real-time. There are also general needs for SAR systems and methods that can process SAR data in real-time allowing for a quick look at a region of interest to ensure that the data is good. There are also general needs for SAR systems and methods that can process SAR data in real-time that take up less space and/or consume less power.